Sick swordtail

[plankton]

Welcome to the forum.
I, too, would say it's a bit soft for swordtails long-term.

[Hsep]

That Swordtail has a bent spine. It could be genetic, or, since the fish has lasted well into adulthood, more likely some internal issue that has developed. I wouldn’t expect it to last that much longer.

The fish should not be that old, I have her for approximately 3 months and I bought her when she was smaller so I assume that she was relatively young when I got her. What is your recommendation about her, since I have to leave I cannot keep an eye on her every day. Since you assume that she will not last much longer, should I put her out of the aquarium before I leave or keep her in?

What is the hardness of the water?

Measuring the hardness with the test strips is indeed very tricky since the colour for 8 is very similar to the colour for 16. I will bring a sample of my water to the fish shop to test it properly, however, it will be on Thursday. In my local fish store, they told me that the water hardness in Amsterdam is high and I should not be concerned about it.

[black ghost]

It may not die soon, but with this condition it’s a gradual downhill slide. It’s probably nothing that will transfer to the others, or it would have by now.

[Hsep]

What is the hardness of the water?

I got a bit impatient and bought a testing kit from colombo at the closest store I have. Hence, the results should be accurate. Unfortunately, the test strips were very inaccurate. GH is actually at 5°d and KH at 7°d according to colombo test kit. NO2, NO3 and ammonia are 0mg/l, pH is actually 7, and I have also measured PO4 at 0.5mg/l. Can you tell me please how bad these results are and what should I do? Thank you.

[Hsep]

It may not die soon, but with this condition it’s a gradual downhill slide. It’s probably nothing that will transfer to the others, or it would have by now.

I had her in the small tank previously and the two fish that died had similar symptoms as this one, so I am a bit worried that she got it from them. I discussed this issue of transferring potentially sick fish to the new aquarium with multiple stores and they always said that the two swordtails died due to lack of space.

[fr499y]

Ah yes, thats certainly too soft for swordtails. That will certainly have an affect on the health of the fish. They really need water around the 12 - 18 dGH mark to thrive.

[Hsep]

They really need water around the 12 - 18 dGH mark to thrive.

I was expecting that there will be an issue so I bought GH plus from colobo as well, do you think I should start slowly to dose it to the aquarium asap? (Of slowly - at the recommended rate, asap - start today and increase it every day)

[black ghost]

I asked about Amsterdam water on another forum (with Dutch people on it) and was given this link…

https://www.waternet.nl/en/service-and- ... -hardness/

Turns out Amsterdam water is (on average) about 8 GH.

Fish bodily fluids have a GH of about 12. In water that is softer than this, the tendency is for water to enter the fish through osmosis, to equalise the hardness of the body and the water outside. Soft water fish prevent this by having very good osmoregulation.
Fish that live in hard water don’t need as much osmoregulation, so their osmoregulatory system has never had much work to do. Put them in softer water and their ineffective systems struggle, and are usually not capable enough to keep the water out. Even when they can, they’re working overtime which puts stress on the system/fish. Stress of any kind reduces the efficiency of the immune system.

If you want to keep the Swords you will need to increase the GH, and keep it there by increasing the GH of all replacement water to the same level.

[black ghost]

I was expecting that there will be an issue so I bought GH plus from colobo as well, do you think I should start slowly to dose it to the aquarium asap? (Of slowly - at the recommended rate, asap - start today and increase it every day)

Yes.

[Hsep]

If you want to keep the Swords you will need to increase the GH, and keep it there by increasing the GH of all replacement water to the same level.

Okay, this makes perfect sense, thank you for explaining it very well.

With the water changes, I do have a follow-up question that is a bit off-topic. Do you have any recommendations on what to do so that I get away with fewer water changes? From what I understand, water changes are mostly done to reduce the NO2, NO3 and ammonia levels in the aquarium (I do understand that it probably helps with other things as well). Accept for planting heavily to use the plants as filters, do you have any other recommendations that will help keep the aquarium balanced over time?

Additionally, I know that keeping the number of fish low will help since they will not produce that much waste. Regarding the stocking I am planning to keep the stocking at 5 corys, maybe add one smaller specie of pleco, thus 2 plecos, 6 ember tetras and I would like to have 5 females and 2 males of swordtails in the aquarium. I am already at 4 females and 1 male and one more female is growing in my smaller tank, but it is just a baby now so I want to buy just one more male. Just a note, it is a 100l tank. Also, the one sick female might die soon and currently, I do not know if I want to replace her or not.

And lastly, would you leave the sick swordtail in the aquarium for the two weeks I will be away?